After much pondering, I have decided to attempt Pinstar’s new Legacy Challenge for The Sims 3. I had felt a bit legacy’ed out, to tell you the truth, and wasn’t sure if I was really interested in raising generation after generation of odd-looking children in some kind of mad race to the end. I haven’t been able to finish a legacy since the Shanleys; generally I get bored by 2nd generation. After nearly 5 years of playing The Sims 2, I’m more intrigued by things like hood-building and writing stories about complex and/or silly relationships between characters. But…I am intrigued by The Sims 3, and I want to learn more about the game. Playing the Shanleys taught me that letting a Sim grow old and die can be fascinating. It forced me to explore all of the careers and aspirations. And I saw the gamut of Sim behaviors. Plus it’s just fun to see if I can do it. Can I get past 2nd gen? We shall see.
So, meet my Legacy founder: Hildemunde Garovald, or Hildy for short. She’s a little bit odd because even though I’ll be playing a legacy, I want to tell it in story form. And Hildy’s story is starting out a little bit differently from my usual legacy. To be honest, I don’t even want to think of it as a legacy. It’s just a story. Hildy’s story. Hildy’s Fable.
More coming soon…
She’s beautiful, Jen.
I’ve been here, by the way. Just reading, not commenting. Always unsure what to say, and feeling a bit “out of it” because I am not privileged enough to play The Sims 3 due to my lack of a computer that can even run The Sims 2. Hopefully soon, but for now it makes my heart hurt to look at the beautiful pictures you’ve taken in game and to know that there are at least some people who are enjoying a game that is a 3 star on Amazon (pitiful!). The more I read though, the more I feel as though this is a different game, not a sequel, and that makes it even more interesting to me. Gosh it hurts!
I have never, ever finished a legacy, but I have read through yours from the Shanleys on down. I’ve read every post you’ve made on this blog, even if I haven’t commented on all of them. Your photos weren’t great back then and you didn’t have a lot of CC. You had plumbobs in pictures and everything! And the story didn’t always flow the way that one wanted it to flow.
But I know that for me, it was the Shanleys who really captured my heart more than any other family you’ve shared with us. Sure, I loved the Ravelos, but the Shanleys were special. I think that there is something that we can all, as players, identify with in learning and discovering the games. I never finished a legacy because the game had gotten boring. Sims were no longer really challenging and certain life stages have just become tedious. I think that after five years we all needed something that was *different* and The Sims 3 has given us that in a big way, I believe.
I joined Tagfoot recently and I have shared your blog here with all of the people on my friends’ list. I can’t promise that you’ll get any visitors whatsoever but I wanted to let you know that I appreciate you enough to brag on you. :)
Devin!!! I’m so happy to see you. :) But it bums me out that you want to play Sims 3 and can’t. :( I’m still not even sure whether I like the game or not, but I’m intrigued enough by it that I want to keep exploring. I wish I could send you a computer. How can we get you a computer???
Oh wow, I posted my comment on your other post this morning, and I check back tonight and there’s a whole post that answers my question!
Hildy looks absolutely gorgeous! You’re a very good story teller so I’m looking forward to Hildy’s fable =)
LOL, yeah, this whole post is a response to your question! Thanks, and I hope you’ll enjoy the story.
Sounds good! Hildy looks almost elf-like, with the hair and top you have her in.
I was going for a fairy tale look for Hildy, so elf-like sounds good!
Yeah new Legacy!
Oh Jen I am so excited and can’t wait to see where her life goes. I loved the Shanleys and all your other stories, but was dissapointed that you didn’t finish them missing Fran. I hope you can get to 10 generations with this family and please will you post some pics of toddlers.
I myself have never gotten past generation three of a legacy got board and like Devin I have a computer that barely handles the sims 2 and no way it will handle the sims 3. I am unemployed right now but when I get a job I will be saving for a new computer that will run both the sims 2 and 3.
I’m sorry you are disappointed about my unfinished stories. I’m disappointed, too! Heh. I think I have “Commitment Issues”. ;-) Can’t stick to one thing for very long. Best of luck to you with the job-hunting; I hope you can get that new computer soon!
This sounds interesting. I love Hildy already. :)
I was just thinking of how EA might be paying more attention than we thought. Maybe they hear the stuff about legacies and wanting extended families, but people not having the time to play the other families. So perhaps that’s why they have the entire town age. Who knows, just a guess. It ruins the concept of a prosperity challenge though.
Yeah, I do think EA listens, but only to certain sections of Sims fans. Why couldn’t they have just made everything optional, so that you could play Legacy-style OR prosperity style? And forget about trying something like Jade’s Isle of Thyme or Laura’s Lakeside Heights. It’s just not do-able with TS3. But maybe it will be down the road. I really hope it will. But yeah, they did make things better for legacy-play. We’ll see how it goes!
Yay! jenba’s writing stories again. *jiggles with excitement* Yes, I like how you think – not thinking of it as a legacy, but as a story … “Hildy’s story”. Great idea, jenba. *nods* *nods* :O) I’ve just finished reading through the rules. Guess I’m starting yet another legacy. *heavy, put-upon sigh* :OD)) Hildy really is quite lovely. I think I might make my founder before heading to bed. Eager to read more about her!
You’re doing the legacy, too? Cool! I’m looking forward to that!
I’m looking forward to reading Hildy’s Fable. I love your stories, Jen.
Thanks, Lisa. :0)
Stupid plugin won’t let me hit reply to your reply, Jen. LOL!
Leo is going to be getting some money and we’re thinking we’ll be able to get another computer then. A friend gets an excellent discount and the one we want is $450 all built. Won’t need an upgrade to play any kind of game for probably at least five or so years. 8 Gig of Ram? I’ve never heard of such a thing! LOL!
Because he was unemployed we have some bills to get caught up and then we also need to put a down payment on a car. But he’s going to be writing a book and we need a second computer for that because I’m writing, too. My primary work from home gig. So we need two machines if we’re both going to get our stuff done.
Shouldn’t be too long!
I’ve been trying to reassure myself by reading the negative reviews, but it isn’t working. I think that a lot of people expected TS3 to build on TS2, but it appears to be a completely different game. I am loathing having to reinstall TS2 though — I don’t know where all of my disks are and of course SecuROM on AL… Ugh!
Wow, sounds like quite the computer you plan on building! Well geez, I hope you get it sooner rather than later. You guys definitely need TWO machines! ;-) I understand about the bills and stuff, though.
yay, you’re doing a Sims 3 legacy, Jenba!!! Devin, I felt the exact same way about the Shanleys! Looking forward to seeing how Hildy’s story turns out!
I’m actually really glad that I’m not the only one. Maybe it’s those of us who have been reading here almost as long as Jen’s had the blog up who have a “different” view of her writings.
No question, Jen’s an awesome writer and I always look forward to seeing what she’s doing. Do I like the image in the Burr legacy? The Braytons? Well, yes. Of course. I loved the themes, liked the CC that Jen used. But the thing is that there was so much *fun* with the Shanleys (yes, and the Ravelos, as much later as they came).
I have managed to make it to generation six in one single family in TS3 before getting bored. Of course, that was my test family. I’m currently experimenting with rotational gameplay/etc.
It’ll be interesting to see how well the legacy challenge transfers over to this game! Hildy looks like she’ll be fun.
Generation 6, that’s not too shabby. I’d love to hear how your experiment with rotational gameplay goes!
Hildy is lovely! I look forward to seeing how her Legacy progresses.
I’ve gone so far with my Primogens, I’m not sure if I want to start something new. They are still sitting there in TS2, waiting for me to write their story. I don’t know how I’ll put a voice to something else after playing the same Legacy for five years and 25 generations. LOL. But your stories do inspire, so I may be giving this a shot soon! Keep up the lovely writing. :)
Thank you, Sariana! :) I’m glad you’re enjoying my stories. The Primogens are quite the rarity in the Simming world…25 generations is just amazing.
Mao, that was quick! Is game play that quick with TS3 or are you obsessed? What do you think of it? Are you enjoying it?
I’m weird and trying to avoid Sims forums at the moment because they are killing me! LOL
ROFL, Devin! To answer your question, I played the family starting around 22nd or so of May. I had the arr’d release version. I had a test blog and everything, it’s still up… but I have a ‘special’ sense of humor, so yeah. That holds a lot of my thoughts, but essentially, EA pulled another ‘take over a franchise and destroy it’. See SimCity Societies. It’s the same thing. It’s like they took ideas from Simsville and split them down the middle, some to SimCity Societies, some to Sims 3. Ridiculous. Almost everything is half-assed. Don’t even get me going on Rob Humble and his quote about not “getting” The Sims franchise. BUH!
I was playing on normal lifespan. Now I play on long, but may change back. The only forum I check is MATY. The rest just sound like baaing echoes and it makes my ears bleed. But yeah, I play games, a lot. A lot. So I’ve clocked in some serious hours.
I can’t wait!
Any way to allow replies more than one deep? ;)
That’s weird, I know it has allowed more than one reply before! But I upgraded my wordpress recently (as well as the plug-in) so maybe things just aren’t working properly. I’ll have to futz with it.
I’m glad you caved! Erm I mean chose to join us in the Legacy insanity of Sims3. *hugs Jenba*
Hildy is lovely and i look forward to reading her fable.
Hildy. Hildy!
I’m feeling a bit neurotic about my spelling error in my other comment. :)
I can’t wait to see what happens next. Good luck with your Legacy fable!
Wow, Hildy is so pretty! She looks like a porcelin doll or something. Thankfully, I know the first chapter is up, so I don’t have to wait to start reading her fable. :D
(Gotta remember to get my Legacy story started before I go away for the weekend, now that I’ve played a week with my founder.)